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Pregnancy and childbirth

from Medical topics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

By
Lyn Quine  and
Liz Steadman
Edited by
Susan Ayers ,
Andrew Baum ,
Chris McManus ,
Stanton Newman ,
Kenneth Wallston ,
John Weinman  and
Robert West
Lyn Quine
Affiliation:
University of Kent
Liz Steadman
Affiliation:
Canterbury Christ Church University
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
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Summary

Over six hundred thousand children will be born in England and Wales in 2005. While the huge majority of these will be healthy, some 6000 will die before their first birthday and some 45 000 will be of low birthweight, placing them at risk. Still others will be disabled as a result of complications during the pregnancy or birth. For some mothers the quality of the birth experience will be poor and their satisfaction with antenatal services low. In this review we examine the principal social and psychological variables that may affect these outcomes and consider the contribution that psychological theory has made to our understanding of the epidemiological factors of pregnancy and childbirth.

In the following brief overview, we argue that risk factors are not distributed randomly in society and independent of living and working conditions, but are disproportionately prevalent among lower socioeconomic groups. We suggest some of the pathways by which risk factors may mediate social inputs and outcomes.

Early childhood mortality

Infant mortality in England and Wales has fallen from 9.4 per 1000 live births in 1984 to 5.6 per 1000 in 2000. Improvements in absolute social conditions played a major role in reducing mortality in the last century, along with increased medical knowledge and improved services, but marked effects of relative social and economic disadvantage are still present.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 823 - 827
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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